336 On the Earthquake felt in Sicily in Feb. 1818. 
space of about twenty canne*, and lasted about twenty minutes. 
The openings by which this water issued, were still so hot, two 
days after, that one could not put the hand in without pain. The 
plants about some withered, and about others continued to vege- 
tate; which affords reason to suppose that they did not all emit 
salt water. Near this place there was a loud detonation like 
thunder, and fragments of mortar and bricks were found detached 
from the walls, and scattered in various directions, which the 
author attributes to a sudden inflammation of gas below the 
building to which they belonged. It is said that the river Simeto 
ceased to flow at the moment of the shock, and afterwards sud- 
denly resumed its course. The sea showed only a trifling undu- 
lation; but a bark, which was at anchor not far from the shore, 
grounded three times. 
A short time after the shock the air became thick, and the 
sky was covered with clouds, which in a few hours dispersed, and 
the moon again shone. No electric meteors were perceived 
either before, during, or after the earthquake; whence the au- 
thor infers that those philosophers are mistaken who ascribe earth- 
quakes to subterraneous electrical explosions, and make them 
depend exclusively on a rupture of the electrical equilibrium. 
It is almost superfluous to say, that the animals were the first 
to announce the approach of the earthquake: many persons also 
experienced extraordinary sensations before it commenced,— 
some vertigo,some a particular sensation of heat in the legs, others 
a kind of stupor; effects which principally depended on the 
greater or less degree of irritability of the nervous system of the 
persons who experienced them. 
The author then proceeds to explain the phenomenon, which 
he seems to be convinced was caused by gases disengaged by the 
fermentation experienced in the interior of the earth by divers 
substances impregnated with certain fluids. None of his theories 
are new, and it is surprising that he has been guilty of two im- 
portant omissions; the first, that he passes too lightly over the 
possible and probable influence of volcanoes upon earthquakes. 
“* Nobody,” he says, “ can think that Etna was the cause of the 
late event.” The other omission is that of the system which 
ascribes these shocks to the most incoercible force that nature 
affords, that of water suddenly converted by fire into steam. The 
well known effects applied to mechanics, tend to a more natural 
explanation than any of those proposed by the author.—The 
number of persons killed or wounded on this occasion was 169. 
* One hundred canne, each containing eight palms, are 2]2£ English 
yards. 
LVIII. Ol- 
